English Chess Forum

Round one starts tonight for the county's strongest ever congress.

Live games here

Entries

I've just been alerted to this and will be watching with interest.

Congratulations to sponsors and organisers alike for setting this up.

Jonathan Rogers wrote:I've just been alerted to this and will be watching with interest.

Congratulations to sponsors and organisers alike for setting this up.

Thanks Jonathan. We're delighted to be welcoming such a stellar line-up this year and hopefully some great battles ahead. If only we could get the trains to work on time the past couple of hours would have been much less stressful!

For local interest it is fascinating to see the board 9 clash between our Shropshire-born IM and great congress stalwart John Cox, and David Everington, a mentor to many, many local players and multiple times county champion. The last time they played, one of them was probably in short trousers. David will certainly have the score of their last game stored safely in his collection.

Round 1 results went largely to form, although creditable draw for Shropshire player Simon Maydew who held Peter Poobalasingam to a draw.

Round 2 draw includes some tough battles with a number of titled clashes - Milliet-Vakhidov; Gormally-Cox; and Jackson-Merry.

Shropshire Open Round 2

1 8 Milliet, Sophie (FRA) 2369 IM [1] 1 Vakhidov, Jahongir (UZB) 2554 GM [1]
2 2 Gormally, Daniel W (ENG) 2506 GM [1] 9 Cox, John J (ENG) 2351 IM [1]
3 16 Ferrington, Nigel M (ENG) 2140 [1] 3 Gordon, Stephen J (ENG) 2493 GM [1]
4 4 Hebden, Mark L (ENG) 2481 GM [1] 13 Jones, Steven A (ENG) 2180 [1]
5 20 Sygnowski, Tomasz (POL) 2049 [1] 5 Arkell, Keith CC (ENG) 2474 GM [1]

6 6 Ghasi, Ameet K (ENG) 2460 IM [1] 19 Regan, Natasha K (ENG) 2060 WIM [1]
7 10 Jackson, James P (ENG) 2330 FM [½] 7 Merry, Alan B (ENG) 2376 FM [1]
8 29 Cukovs, Oleg (ENG) 1949 [½] 11 Bukojemski, Adam (POL) 2270 [½]
9 12 Poobalasingam, Peter S (ENG) 2239 FM [½] 33 Price, Andrew (ENG) 1841 [½]
10 37 Munshi, Aditya (ENG) 1770 [½] 14 Maciol, Ryszard (POL) 2173 [½]

11 15 Kalavannan, Koby (ENG) 2144 [½] 32 Maydew, Simon (ENG) 1866 [½]
12 38 Holton, Jake (ENG) 1730 [½] 17 Hynes, AM (Tony) (ENG) 2132 [½]
13 18 Surtees, Mike J (ENG) 2132 [½] 40 Boswell, Jacob Connor (ENG) 1638 [½]
14 21 Okhai, Shabir (ENG) 2030 [0] 25 Whitehead, Mark A (ENG) 1995 [½]
15 31 Everington, David MH 1915 [0] 22 Galligan, Brian (IRL) 2029 [0]

16 23 Gostelow, David W (ENG) 2023 [0] 30 Paul, Nathanael (ENG) 1933 [0]
17 34 Pugh, Glyn D (ENG) 1838 [0] 24 Davis, Lee (WLS) 2002 [0]
18 26 Zabrocki, Philip AM 1994 [0] 35 Ali, Golam S (ENG) 1834 [0]
19 36 Tarr, Steve F (ENG) 1779 [0] 27 Arkell, Nicholas D (ENG) 1987 [0]
20 28 Bryant, Richard BE (ENG) 1961 [0] 39 Guha, Chirag (WLS) 1640 [0]


Live games here

Round 3 - GM Stephen Gordon throwing king-side pawns forward against IM Ameet Ghasi on 2nd bd.

If decisive that could lead to just one player on 3/3 - after the draw on bd. 1 between GMs Hebden & Gormally. If not there could be a pile up on 2.5/3.

Is there some problem with the live games for round three? Clearly not for John, but for me, clicking on "multiboard", I only see games between a number of players who don't seem to be playing at all!

Have you clicked on the right round? It seems fine to me.

I had clicked on the right round ... but since the problem was clearly at my end, I then closed the window and tried again and now everything is fine.

It was bizarre though. Before the page was showing, among others, a game by Joseph McPhillips, who I believe is playing the 4NCL weekender, and RdC who unsurprisingly posted recently on this forum!

Big missed opportunity for Mike Surtees.

Jonathan Rogers wrote: It was bizarre though. Before the page was showing, among others, a game by Joseph McPhillips, who I believe is playing the 4NCL weekender, and RdC who unsurprisingly posted recently on this forum!

I played last year, so that may be what you saw.

Mike Truran wrote:
Big missed opportunity for Mike Surtees.

Was Mike playing the Opening System he invented ?

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Jonathan Rogers wrote: It was bizarre though. Before the page was showing, among others, a game by Joseph McPhillips, who I believe is playing the 4NCL weekender, and RdC who unsurprisingly posted recently on this forum!

I played last year, so that may be what you saw.

That would make sense, especially if you lost with Black to John Cox in round three!

So, I make it 9 players on 2.5/3. I suppose someone will come through to 4.5 tomorrow, but one wouldn't rule out a mass pile up on 4/5.

What are the other prizes, besides £1,000 for first?

Profuse apologies for the mix-up on the live boards at the start of the third round. Some embarrassment that the organisers all nipped off for some late lunch when it started and omitted to press the crucial button to start the round on the DGT server. It was therefore showing round three from last year, as the eagle-eyed among you spotted. If only I had been keeping up with the forum at the time I would have been alerted to it earlier!

Dave Thomas sorted out the url once he got admin rights on the site and I think it was all working by the time the games got interesting. The consensus in the analysis room was indeed that Mike Surtees did everything but put the ball in the net. Danny Gormally was alone in correctly predicting that Keith would somehow make it through by the skin of his teeth.

Some very interesting finishes in this morning's round as well including a very brave effort by Shropshire's Nigel Ferrington against Stephen Gordon which didn't finish for almost 4.5 hours, although the ending was a great advert for the value of using incremental time controls; and Jahongir tried desperately to win his ending against Sophie Milliet but she failed to fall into any of his traps despite playing only on increments for about the last 20 moves.

Round 4 draw:

Yes there are nine on 2.5 going into the final two rounds, so it is likely that there will be a share of some sort.

Sorry Jonathan, that I didn't answer query above - prizes in Open are £1,000 1st; £300 2nd and £150 3rd so total of £1,450. There's also a £100 grading prize for under 2000 FIDE and a splendid trophy for the top Shropshire-based player which Nigel Ferrington has taken home for the past two years.

We are delighted to see a tight finish as our intention in setting up the format was to have an event that was really competitive right to the end. I realise this puts the titled players through the mill for the sake of our entertainment, but it has given a great lift to the whole event and we are looking forward to a thrilling finish tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy the live action and we promise to do our best to get it all to work smoothly!

Shropshire Congress 2016
Open FIDE
Round: 4

Venue: The Wrekin Housing Trust, Telford
Date: 10/12/2015
Timings: 90 mins to completion plus an additional 30 secs for each move

Board White Result Black

1 6 Ghasi, Ameet K 2460 IM [2½] 1 Vakhidov, Jahongir 2554 GM [2½]
2 2 Gormally, Daniel W 2506 GM [2½] 14 Maciol, Ryszard 2173 [2½]
3 10 Jackson, James P 2330 FM [2½] 3 Gordon, Stephen J 2493 GM [2½]
4 20 Sygnowski, Tomasz 2049 [2½] 4 Hebden, Mark L 2481 GM [2½]
5 9 Cox, John J 2351 IM [2] 5 Arkell, Keith CC 2474 GM [2½]

6 35 Ali, Golam S 1834 [2] 7 Merry, Alan B 2376 FM [2]
7 8 Milliet, Sophie 2369 IM [1½] 13 Jones, Steven A 2180 [2]
8 21 Okhai, Shabir 2030 [1½] 11 Bukojemski, Adam 2270 [1½]
9 12 Poobalasingam, Peter S 2239 FM [1½] 17 Hynes, AM (Tony) 2132 [1½]
10 15 Kalavannan, Koby 2144 [1½] 27 Arkell, Nicholas D 1987 [1½]

11 16 Ferrington, Nigel M 2140 [1½] 22 Galligan, Brian 2029 [1½]
12 18 Surtees, Mike J 2132 [1½] 19 Regan, Natasha K 2060 WIM [1]
13 23 Gostelow, David W 2023 [1] 37 Munshi, Aditya 1770 [1]
14 31 Everington, David MH 1915 [1] 24 Davis, Lee 2002 [1]
15 38 Holton, Jake 1730 [1] 25 Whitehead, Mark A 1995 [1]

16 28 Bryant, Richard BE 1961 [1] 40 Boswell, Jacob Connor 1638 [1]
17 29 Cukovs, Oleg 1949 [1] 33 Price, Andrew 1841 [1]
18 36 Tarr, Steve F 1779 [1] 30 Paul, Nathanael 1933 [1]
19 34 Pugh, Glyn D 1838 [½] 26 Zabrocki, Philip AM 1994 [½]
20 39 Guha, Chirag 1640 [0] 32 Maydew, Simon 1866 [½]